As the draft of Atheist's Prayer gets nearer to completion, a major rewrite and re-release of Coastal Empire came to be in order because the dialog simply wasn't up to standard. In fact, it was pretty terrible. But it's been fixed. The plot was always a good one and the characters remained the same, but virtually every line of dialog in the novel was rewritten, and much of the narrative retold as well. Naturally, a new edition called for new cover art, which my talented wife provided. On the other hand, the plot of Premonition was already fairly solid, so the necessary revisions were considerably less significant (after cutting the first third of the first chapter.) Nevertheless, once we entered rewrite mode, we didn't want to stop with the first Mercer novel and ignore the sequel. The second novel also needed to match what I hope to continue with Atheist's Prayer in terms of total quality. The worst thing about Premonition was the title. The second worst thing about the novel was the cover. Both of those issues have been resolved (along with a few minor revisions) and we are pleased to announce the release of Hunter's Omen. Won't these look good on your bookshelf? Signed copies available upon request for $20 each. … [Read more...]
Is Tom MacDonald the most important voice in America?
If you've never heard of Tom MacDonald before, don't feel too bad. A little over a week ago, I'd never heard of him, either. A week ago, if you'd asked me whether or not I liked rap music, my answer would have been an emphatic "No!" Today if you asked if I've listened to anything except rap music for the last week, same answer. Not just any rap music, though. I've been stuck on the messages coming this one artist, Tom MacDonald. Yesterday I found myself submitting this article about Tom to American Thinker lauding his talents as a young rap artist and my perception of his music as having the ability to bridge the racial divide by infusing positive messages with rap music. Multiple editors thanked me for the submission and queued it for publication. That has never happened before. Either this is the best article I've ever written for American Thinker, or the editors already knew who Tom is, and knows his audience is ubiquitous. Each time I have discovered a "new" song in his catalog that I like, I tend to listen to it over and over to catch all of the sometimes subtle and often brash lyrics blasting at my ears as if fired from a machine gun (I believe in rap lingo, the term for this is "spitting bars.") More accurately, I tend to watch the video version of the song over and over because in addition to the blistering frequency of raw, thought-provoking rhetoric effortlessly flowing from this young man's mouth, the images that accompany the words are equally powerful and compelling to watch. His politically incorrect, anti-cancel culture messaging prevalent in … [Read more...]
My Top 10 Song Covers
I've been working hard for a while now, mostly editing with a few articles written for American Thinker, and hard work isn't always a lot of fun. When I'm not writing, I'm usually reading something, and even my "pleasure" reading has a purpose...for example, as I continue finishing what has turned out to be an almost complete rewrite of my first novel, Coastal Empire, and my editing and "other" work on the Rootstock epic fantasy series written by L. H. Leonard. Legend of the Storm Hawks and Path of the Spirit Runner are already available in ebook or print (audio still to come), and the final two novels in the collection are scheduled to be published before the end of summer. John Sandford Like I just said, when I'm not writing, editing, entertaining animals or trying to clean house, I'm usually reading something, and it was probably written by John Sandford, my favorite author of mystery and suspense novels. Quite frankly, John Sandford is my role model. Before I die, I can only hope that one of my novels will be half as good as his average effort in the "Prey" series featuring Detective Lucas Davenport, or his other series of novels featuring BCA Investigator Virgil Flowers. Sandford's plots are typically brilliant, and his dialog both razor sharp and realistic. His timing is impeccable, whether comic and dramatic. John Sandford is so good that it was more than ten years and maybe twenty novels before I ever found what I clearly knew was a mistake in one of his novels. And if the reader wasn't a John Sandford fanatic like me, the mistake wouldn't have even been … [Read more...]
Jussie Smollett’s hate crime
I'm not a big fan of the term "hate crime" because the definition of one is vague and nebulous at best, obfuscating and confusing at worst. The term "hate crime" suggests that certain crimes should be judged and punished more harshly depending on the motive of the perpetrator. Jussie Smollett Theoretically, the criminal act is considered worse if racism, homophobia, or some other prejudice is the primary motive. But is that really true? Even if it is true, why should it matter? Let's say person "A" murders person "B" in some heinous manner, let's say by nailing them to a tree--is the crime really worse if the perpetrator and victim are of different races or have different sexual preferences? Personally, I wouldn't really care too much one way or the other even if the perpetrator and victim were different species. I'd care that a living creature had been nailed to a tree for no justifiable reason. In my opinion, there is something seriously wrong with a human being who would torture an animal or a person and take pleasure from watching them suffer. Someone that evil shouldn't be allowed to live. Jussie Smollett hates President Donald Trump so much that he paid two black men $3,500 (unfortunately for him paid by check, leaving a paper trail) to "attack" him with bleach, claiming they were Trump supporters shouting "Make America Great Again" and racist, homophobic slurs. His t-shirt says it all, doesn't it? Smollett caused the city of Chicago to waste hundreds of thousands of dollars paying the police to waste hundreds of man-hours investigating a … [Read more...]
Amy Schumer: a portrait in liberal hypocrisy
Amy Schumer is a Hollywood actress and comedian who made her film debut in 2015 by starring in the movie Trainwreck. As this article continues, please do not forget that she also wrote the script for the movie. The photo below shows Amy with a couple of other protestors at the Senate confirmation hearing for Judge (now Supreme Court Justice) Brett Kavanaugh. Ms. Schumer later agreed to be arrested by the police. Now if her last name sounds awfully familiar even though you've never seen Ms. Schumer perform, you'd be correct if you guessed it was because her uncle is none other than Democrat Senate Minority Leader Chuck (You) Schumer. Before we unpack the idea of Ms. Schumer protesting the appointment of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, let's take a little bit closer look at the plot of her big Hollywood debut, and the script she wrote. In fact, we can learn all we need to know simply by watching the official trailer. Note that her character (named Amy) says in a voice over, I'm just a modern chick who does what she wants. Last week, it was this guy. Wow. What a great role model! </sarcasm> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_KP9x80Z9Q Ms. Schumer plays a woman who frequently gets drunk and has shallow sexual encounters with a never-ending succession of strange men. If her character had been male, he would have (or at least should have) been labeled a Lothario or Casanova personality who should be understood to be a sexual predator, or seen as a serious alcoholic with low self-esteem and a complete lack of control over his inhibitions. In real … [Read more...]
